MINNEAPOLIS – As Luka Dončić sat in the small postgame press conference room, the smallest he will be in until his season ends, he placed a trophy on the table in front of him. Presented to him after being voted MVP in the Western Conference Finals, the award began with a glittering gold spell dais holding the silver orb above. He wasn't sure, he admitted, how she would fit into his trophy case.
“He will go home,” Dončić said, the only destination he was sure of at the time. “I don't know where yet.”
Free daily sports updates straight to your inbox. Register
Free daily sports updates straight to your inbox. Register
Dončić's brilliant braces are too numerous to list. He has a trophy from Real Madrid's 2018 EuroLeague championship, but none from Slovenia's first EuroBasket victory in 2017. There are countless plaques and medallions, too many to remember, from past tournaments and finals he starred in long ago. What did he have in mind other than a beer after the gameIt was not his new metallic piece, but the search for an even more golden one.
On Thursday, in a 124-103 Game 5 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dončić advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time. Along with him came his new group of teammates, the best he's ever had, amplifying his transcendent superstar who seemed destined to reach this stage.
Now he has done it.
Luka Dončić smiles at his press conference after the Mavericks won the Western Conference finals. (Bruce Kluckhohn/USA Today)
It's been 13 years since the Dallas Mavericks reached the NBA Finals. Thirteen years since they lifted the crown under Dirk Nowitzki for the first time in franchise history. Thirteen years of working hard during the decline of Nowitzki and then learning to trust Dončić after his arrival. This is the Nowitzki franchise, it always will be, but there is no better successor. Not because these two legends are identical, or even close, but because they share one trait: a ruthless desire to win that elevates everyone around them. What Nowitzki left, Dončić followed. Now, they've reached the same place Nowitzki once took them: to the finals, against the Boston Celtics, starting June 6.
Dončić didn't watch the NBA Finals as a kid. “It was 4 in the morning,” he said. “I couldn't. He had school the next day.”
But from the opening minutes of Game 5, he left no doubt that he would reach the first. He scored 10 points in the first three minutes, 15 in the first eight and 20 when he finished the quarter, while the Timberwolves scored only 19.
“I turn around and he's shooting from half court,” starting center Daniel Gafford said. “I told him, 'At this point, I don't even need to set up a screen for you, bro.'”
It was a display of determination that Dončić has displayed many times before, most famously against the Phoenix Suns in a closing Game 7 two seasons ago.
“This one was really close to that,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He took the crowd out of the game from the start and let his teammates know it was time.”
Dončić's 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting were matched by his running mate, Kyrie Irving, who scored 36. Irving is the only player on the team to have been to the finals before. Irving is the best player Dončić has ever played with, one who matched him shot for shot in Thursday's victory. He made sure that Dončić's growling and shouting eminence was joined by his own firm and confident determination. With those two at the top of the team, in games where both decide that losing is not an option, there is certainty in the results.
The teammates around them (whom Dončić first met 12, 10 or even three months ago) quickly gained Dončić's full trust on the court.
When Dončić is unstoppable, his teammates get involved in escalating his brilliance. Play it straight and Dončić will overcome any high-flying athleticism he lacks to deliver sky-grazing lofted passes that Gafford knocks down to the deadly rim. Combine it twice and you have rookie phenom Derek Lively II catching the ball at the free throw line and passing it to an open teammate, usually PJ Washington or Derrick Jones Jr., two defensive stalwarts who have quickly learned that hesitation it's an unnecessary feeling when those deliveries are imbued with Dončić's own confidence in them.
At times, Josh Green attempts passes so boldly that you wonder if Dončić might be puppeting him when they make it. At other times, old friends like Maxi Kleber emerge with veteran knowledge to remind us that Dončić is still a young man of only 25, not yet in his prime, despite watching his teammates age within and outside of his own. Even 21-year-old sophomore guard Jaden Hardy, revived in the past two weeks, struts around with a swagger that, at least in part, must come from Dončić.
Dončić is always in charge, steering the helm of this team. His hagiography is earned on nights like this, where there is no way to look at him and think of anything other than that he is the greatest basketball player alive. It will be determined whether he and his teammates are enough, at this point, to topple the Boston Celtics. The battle will be fought over seven games, or six, or however many are necessary.
“We're not done yet,” Dončić said. “We need four more.”
Dončić's trophy case, in which he will store his newly awarded slab wherever it fits, could use a centerpiece. What Dončić would like to see there is the biggest trophy this sport has to offer. He has always wanted it from the first moment he entered this League loaded with laurels that he intended to surpass.
Now begins your first opportunity.
Required reading
(Top photo of Luka Dončić and his father, Sasa: David Berding/Getty Images)
